Stripe, a prominent global payments firm, confirmed its reentry into the crypto payment space, with a particular focus on enabling Circle’s USDC Stablecoin transactions. The declaration followed a hiatus starting in 2018 when the company seized its bitcoin payment option due to the coin’s extreme volatility.
Stripe president, John Collison, unveiled these fresh plans for the company during the recent Global Internet Economy conference. Collison emphasised that Stripe’s revisit to the crypto world promises an “enhanced experience”, departing from the volatility concerns that previously provoked the company’s withdrawal.
Stripe’s earlier involvement in crypto transactions can be traced back to 2014, when it leveraged the bitcoin ecosystem. The discontinuation arrived four years later, arguing bitcoin’s unstable nature and becoming an asset rather than a medium of exchange, additionally highlighting the criticisms towards bitcoin’s extensive transaction times and increasing fees.
When bitcoin encountered its first “crypto winter” in 2018, Stripe was a witness to this fluctuation, observing its fall from $19,650 in December 2017 to merely $3,401 at the conclusion of 2018. The fintech giant’s revisit to the market came with participation in Facebook’s Libra project in 2019, although it quickly withdrew, and the project was never implemented.
However, with rising transaction speeds and plummeting costs, Stripe observed a silver lining. Pointing to this progress, Collison reiterated that crypto has finally proven its utility as a reliable medium of exchange. For Stripe’s renewed crypto venture, Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon blockchains will support transaction processing.
The company’s standing today is broad, valued at a whopping $65 billion. As one of the primary global payment providers, it has also transacted over $1 trillion in transactions as of 2023.